GOTW | Figured - Farm Accounting Software
"Figured Review – Online Farm Accounting Software that works with Xero"
Key Features
- Figured is an online farm accounting software which eliminates the need to have software installed onto your computer. Figured can be accessed anywhere, anytime on any device that has an internet connection. This also means that multiple users that make up your farming team can have access to this online real-time data. From your farm manager to your bank, accountant or farming consultants everyone can have the benefits of real time information in an easy to manage format.
- Figured is an add-on to Xero and the integration works seamlessly. Having the two accounting systems working together is fantastic. Xero handles all of the accounting side with your bank accounts connected through gives real time and accurate data to compare and report on.
- Production Tracking -Easily track livestock movements, crop and milk production as well as your operating expenses.
- Budgeting and Planning - Figured is a strong budgeting and forecasting tool. You set your budget figures at the start of the year (last year figures can be imported and adjusted) and then locked down. Any changes to your budget can be captured by copying the budget over to a forecast and the changes can be made from here. The major advantage is that your actual figures from Xero will flow through to Figured and you can run variance reports to see differences between Actual, Budget and Forecast figures. More time can be spent planning and looking forward rather than collecting historical data.
- Stock Valuation Calculations – Say goodbye to complicated and outdated spreadsheets. Figured calculates market and taxation valuations with a click of a button.
- Powerful reporting – Figured has many strong reports that can be accessed with a click of a button, whether you want to capture the amount of dollars per hectare or how many per kg milk solids it is all readily available.
- Multi-farm management – Figured also has the feature of being able to manage multiple farms all in one place. You can manage budgets, forecasts and reporting from here as well as comparing farms and having an overall look at the combined performance.
Pricing
Plans start at $40 + GST per month which includes:
- Multi user access including your advisors, accountant, bankers, etc
- Farm financial management reporting
- Full budgeting and rolling forecast
- Multi-year scenario planning
- Multi-farm capable (an additional $40 + GST per month)
Figured does require a Xero GST Cashbook or higher subscription.
How Xero and Figured work together
Purchases, sales, updates or stock quantities are entered into Figured, this generates an invoice which is sent to Xero and automatically matches the payment when it appears in your bank account.
Advantages of using Xero & Figured accounting software for your Farm:
Xero is a full accounting system. It can connect with most bank accounts so you can have bank transactions feeding into Xero automatically on a daily basis.
The standard Xero package can manage your debtors and creditors. You can easily keep track of who owes you money and when that money is expected in as well as knowing who you owe money to and when that money needs to be paid. The creditors function has the ability to export payments directly to your internet baking which is a massive time saving.
Invoices can be scanned or emailed and saved into Xero and be attached to a transaction. This significantly decreases the amount of paper you need to keep. Wherever you are you will have access to these invoices.
Xero is a complete ledger. Working with Figured means your accountant can prepare the annual financial statements without the need to export into their own ledger system. This saves time and money. It also has the advantage that both you and your accountant are working with the same information and any changes can be updated in your system so there are never any discrepancies.
Figured is a farm budgeting tool that communicates fully with Xero. Once budgets are prepared in Figured and production movements are entered many reports can be generated straight out of Figured. It can show you the profit and loss for your livestock and production accounts as well as reporting on budget compared with actual figures. The monitoring of your business is both timely and relevant in order for you to make sound business decisions and focus your efforts. Historically the farmer wouldn’t find out about these issues until it was too late.
Figured can easily keep track of your livestock numbers and can produce valuations of stock on hand that can be transferred across to Xero.
Figured has the ability to manage multiple farms which saves you time. Have multiple farms managed in once place makes it easy to see how each farm is tracking and also compare production and profit at each farm.
The scenario planning tool in Figured has recently been released. This has the ability to plan and analyse different outcomes for your farm. For example, if you wanted to see the overall business effect of purchasing a new high-value asset the costs and potential increased revenue can be entered into the tool so the whole farming team can make an informed decision.
GEEK TIP: Using Xero and Figured relies on having a good broadband internet connection. If your internet suffers from interruptions or you have issues with speed a different farming package would be recommended. The recommendation would be to download the free 30-day trial to test your internet speed before committing to the full setup.
Production trackers available:
- Milk Tracker – Figured supports most milk supply companies in New Zealand. Figured will import the milk details including production data directly from the milk supply company which can be used for reporting purposes. The milk supply company will also regularly update the milk prices which is helpful for budgeting.
- Livestock Tracker – You can manage your livestock movements by adding in budgeted Sales, Purchases, Births, Deaths, and aging transactions for the upcoming year. Throughout the year you would enter the actual movements to work out variances.
- Cropping Tracker – You can manage your crop production and add budget Purchase, Harvest, Sale, Used for Feed, Held for Seed, Shared and Written Off transactions for the upcoming year and compare this with actual movements.
If you want to know more, would like a FREE demo or have any further questions….
Please contact our in-house guru, Kate
http://www.bwr.co.nz/contact-us#itdept
06 873 8037
